Snapshots: A Glimpse of the Treasured Past
by Jistone
Summary: Sequel/Epilog to Drowning. Dedicated to Stranger-In-Training. Have you ever wondered how it's possible that everything can change in the blink of an eye?


**A/N: okay so this is posted on a limited timeframe so I appologize for any mistakes. It's sort of a sequel/ epilog to Drowning dedicated to Stranger-In-Training who convinced me that this was a good idea.**

Have you ever wondered how it's possible that everything can change in the blink of an eye? How one even can turn your world upside down? One moment life is normal and then suddenly what once was is no more, and you ask yourself why. What could I possibly have done to deserve this? It is uncontrollable and unchangeable and yet you wish to do so desperately. It has almost been seventy years to the day that just such an event occurred in my life, and at the time I thought I would never recover from the staggering blow of losing the love of my life. However, despite the terrible tragedy that left me a single parent and haunted by the ghost of my deceased husband that day was also one of the best days of my life.

Now, I know what you must be thinking. How could the day that I lost my soulmate be one of the best days I have ever had? The answer to that is simple. In fact that's the one thing that I would never change, no matter how much I may want to go back and tinker with time so that day never happened. You see that day was also the day my daughter was born.

Many years have passed since then and both of us are beginning to get up there in age… Oh, who am I kidding? We're both old, her in her seventies and me in my nineties, but we've both lived good, long lives so I can't really complain even if I am almost at the end of mine. That's right, I James Diamond, am dying. With each breath I can feel it getting closer, but I believe that I shall have time to finish my story before I close the book of my life forever.

Now, where was I? Oh yes. My daughter. She was a miracle from the very beginning. I had given up on ever having children the moment I had realized I was gay, but what I had never even dreamed about was falling in love and marrying a man that was so different from the rest that he gave me the one thing I thought I could never have. It turned out that Logan was a hermaphrodite and although typically they are completely sterile, he somehow managed to get pregnant. The moment I found out I was overjoyed, I was going to be a father, but Larissa's birth didn't come without a price. Logan was unable to handle the stress of the birth and due to an electrical storm and an accursed elevator, he didn't survive.

My memories from that time are blurred. I remember settling into a depression that I thought I would never emerge from, and I remember going temporarily insane and wanting nothing more than to kill my own daughter, but then the most amazing thing happened. Logan came to me, or his ghost anyway, and suddenly it was like things were back to normal. He had explained to us, us being myself and my two best friends Kendall and Carlos, that the four of us shared a brotherhood bond and not even death could tear us apart.

I was relieved. Not only did I have Logan back in my life, but I no longer had to raise Larissa on my own. If only I had known that it wouldn't be so simple. Yes, Logan was there with me, or a part of him at least, but it took a lot of energy for him to manifest so he stayed invisible most of the time, only emerging when I truly needed him.

Larissa was an easy baby to handle. She rarely cried and on the off occasion I couldn't calm her, the soothing presence of Logan's spirit seemed to do the trick. It wouldn't be until some years later that I really had to begin to worry about her. She was a beautiful girl, just like I knew she would be with Logan and I as her parents, and by the time she was five, she had all the boys chasing her on the playground and me going prematurely gray. In fact if it wasn't for Logan and my best friends, I probably would have lost what was left of my mind long before she even took an interest in the opposite sex.

Looking back I realize that I may have been a little overprotective, but what you've got to realize is that Larissa was the only thing I had left of Logan, even if his ghost was still around, and I wanted to keep her young and innocent for as long as possible. Kendall and Carlos couldn't seem to understand that and it was a point of tension between us for many years. They kept telling me that Larissa was growing up and that I needed to start letting go so that she could begin living her own life, and unfortunately they were right.

I remember the first time Larissa got asked out. I almost lost her that night because of my own stupidity, but Logan's timely intervention prevented disaster.

_Flashback 1_

"_Daddy!" the slamming of the door startled me out of my thoughts and caused me to drop the towel I had been folding._

"_Larissa Jade, how many times have I told you not to slam the door?" I asked reaching for the dropped towel to resume folding it._

"_I'm sorry daddy," she replied, "but you'll never guess what happened to me today." _

"_And what would that be?" I asked absentmindedly, half my mind still focusing on folding the rather large load of laundry in front of me and the other half wondering what I was going to make for dinner._

"_Josh asked me out!" _

"_That's nice dear," I said my mind still focused on other things. "Wait a minute, WHAT?"_

"_Yeah, he asked me to go to the movies with him tonight…" _

_Beside me Larissa continued to babble on, no doubt telling me every detail of when and how this atrocity had happened, but to be honest I wasn't really listening. My mind had gone into overdrive and something inside me stirred. It twisted and burned within me, filling my heart and soul with nothing but anger and abject terror. This couldn't be happening. It was too soon. I wasn't ready to let her go and a rather large part of me was pissed that another guy was already trying to take my daughter from me. She was only sixteen for crying out loud. No, I wouldn't stand for it. Larissa wasn't going to be allowed to date until after I was dead and gone. A small part of me, the part that sounded like Logan, whispered that this wasn't right and that I should let her go, but just like always I suppressed that part and let myself be immersed in the burning feeling in my chest. With each word that slipped past her lips the feeling grew, slowly consuming my entire being until suddenly it exploded white-hot and raw._

"_No," I ground out, my face hard._

_Larissa stuttered to a stop. "What?"_

"_I said, no. You're not going. I forbid it."My voice was quiet, calm, showing no signs of the rage that was bubbling within me._

"_But Daddy…"_

"_Don't but daddy me. I said you're not going. You're too young to have a boyfriend."_

"_That's not fair dad. Uncle Carlos lets Maria date and she's younger than me."_

"_Do I look like Uncle Carlos to you? I said no and that's final." I was shouting now my earlier peaceful façade having vanished the moment Larissa began to protest. Tears welled in her eyes, her mouth hanging open in shock. I had never raised my voice with her before and she wasn't really sure how to take this new angry version of her father. Sighing, I raised a hand to rub my temples. _

"_I'm sorry Rissa, I shouldn't have yelled, but I'm serious. You're too young to date. And I don't even know anything about this Josh kid. For all I know he could be some creepy, psycho, stalker whose going to rape and kill you the moment he has you out of the house. No. You're staying here with me tonight. We can watch a movie and I'll make spaghetti for dinner. That's your favorite right? It'll be just me and you, just like old times okay?"_

"_No," she whispered tears still pouring down her face as she glared at me. "It's not okay. You never let me do anything dad. All my friends get to go places and hang out together but you never let me go. I always have to stay here with you 'just like old times' and you know what I'm sick of it. I hate you." And with that she turned on her heel and stomped up the stairs towards her room. _

_The slamming of her bedroom door made me cringe as I sunk down into a nearby chair suddenly feeling old. It was never my intention to make her hate me but I just wanted her to be safe and if that meant keeping her here with me then so be it. Someday she would understand._

"_She's right you know." Logan slowly materialized in front of me a look of disappointment on his face._

"_What?"_

"_She's right. You never let her go anywhere with her friends."_

"_I do to. She goes to Seth and Maria's all the time."_

"_James, Seth and Maria are Kendall and Carlos's kids. They don't count."_

"_But…"_

"_No, James. Larissa's growing up and it's time to let her go. You can't keep her here forever and the more you try the more you're going to make her resent you. Can't you see that you're driving her away? If you don't start letting her have a little more freedom James, you're going to lose her. Is that what you want?" Logan paced before me now in lecture mode as I had called it when he was alive. _

"_No but, God Logan, I'm not ready. She's my little girl and I don't want that to change… I'm so afraid, Lo. I don't know what to do anymore." I buried my face in my hands, tears pricking behind my eyelids._

"_Hey, shh… it's okay." Logan slung an arm around me. "It's normal to be afraid when your kids begin to get older, but guess what. No matter how old she get's she'll always be your little girl, that'll never change. She loves you, James, no matter how much she may want to strangle you at times. Now go up there and tell her that you changed your mind. Let her go out and have fun with her date, and I guarantee the world isn't going to end."_

_I nodded and stood as I dried my eyes. Logan was right, one date wasn't the end of the world. I could do this._

"_Oh and James? Do you honestly believe I'm going to leave them alone?" A sinister grin spread across his face as he winked at me and disappeared._

_Oh yes, I was feeling much better about this date already._

_End Flashback_

By the end of the night I had been a nervous wreck, but the look on Larissa's face when she got home had been worth it. I had never seen her smile so wide or her eyes sparkle as much as they had that night. Plus we got some really great stories out of it as well.

"_You put papa up to it didn't you?"_

"_Who me? Never… What did he do?"_

"_Oh he knows what he did."_

Time flew by in a blur after that and before I knew it, or was even ready for it really, Larissa had grown up into a fine young woman that I couldn't have been more proud of. I would like to say that night was the last time we ever fought, but you and I both know that would have been a lie. We had quite a few arguments, some of them rather spectacular that required Logan's intervention, but I guess that's just an unfortunate and unavoidable part of life. What I can say, however, is that we never argued over a boy. Logan made sure that I never had to worry, and for that I was incredibly grateful.

He was kind of a deal breaker for the both of us. Any guy that Larissa dated had to pass his test, his test consisting of appearing before them and introducing himself as Larissa's ghost father. The way he saw it any guy that didn't immediately run for the hills when confronted with a ghost truly loved her and was worthy of her affection. Unfortunately most of the guys she dated didn't pass. With the exception of one, the one that she eventually married.

_Flashback 2_

"_Daddy, guess what," Larissa burst through the door and immediately shoved her left hand in my face._

"_Whoa, what?" I grabbed her hand and pushed it back far enough that I could focus. She beamed at me bouncing on the balls of her feet. I studied her hand for a moment and then I saw it. Sitting on her ring finger was a simple silver band with a single diamond in the center surrounded by sapphires. _

"_Is that…"_

"_I'm getting married!"_

"_Oh my God, Larissa, that's great!" I pulled her into my arms, "Congratulations," I whispered, tears in my eyes. A part of me was sad that she was growing up and getting married, but another larger part of me, the part that had been beaten senseless by Logan, was ecstatic. All I had ever wanted was for her to be happy and healthy and now she was both._

"_You know what we have to do now right?" I asked as I pulled back. She nodded and I turned to look at Derek. _

"_Congratulations," I said, "but now it's time."_

"_Time?" he asked confused._

_Larissa broke free from my embrace and took his hand. "Derek, there's someone I would like you to meet. Papa?"_

_Logan slow formed in front of us, a smile on his face._

"_Congratulations Larissa, I'm so happy for you."_

"_Thanks papa," she said and then turned to Derek, "Derek, I'd like you to meet my papa. He died when I was a baby but his ghost kind of stuck around, and if you're going to marry me, you need to understand that he's a big part of my life."_

_Derek stared wide-eyed at the specter in front of him before unceremoniously passing out._

_End Flashback_

After we had managed to wake up sleeping beauty he was surprisingly okay with the whole ghost thing. In fact he was kind of fascinated with Logan and spent as much time as possible talking with him and asking questions. Derek ended up being the perfect addition to our family, but it wasn't until they welcomed their son and eventually their two daughters into the world that our family was complete.

And now we've come full circle, my story finally at an end. I'm just glad that I was able to tell my tale one last time, but now I can see Logan reaching for me and I so desperately want to be back in his arms, so maybe one day I'll see you again, but for now it's time for me to let go and move on. Larissa I love you and don't mourn for me, just remember that I've lived a long happy life, and although you may not always be able to see me, I'm never truly gone.


End file.
